Description

Since its original publication in 1978, "Delirious New York" has attained mythic status. Back in print in a newly designed edition, this influential cultural, architectural, and social history of New York is even more popular, selling out its first printing on publication. Rem Koolhaas's celebration and analysis of New York depicts the city as a metaphor for the incredible variety of human behavior. At the end of the nineteenth century, population, information, and technology explosions made Manhattan a laboratory for the invention and testing of a metropolitan lifestyle -- "the culture of congestion" -- and its architecture.
"Manhattan," he writes, "is the 20th century's Rosetta Stone . . . occupied by architectural mutations (Central Park, the Skyscraper), utopian fragments (Rockefeller Center, the U.N. Building), and irrational phenomena (Radio City Music Hall)." Koolhaas interprets and reinterprets the dynamic relationship between architecture and culture in a number of telling episodes of New York's history, including the imposition of the Manhattan grid, the creation of Coney Island, and the development of the skyscraper. "Delirious New York" is also packed with intriguing and fun facts and illustrated with witty watercolors and quirky archival drawings, photographs, postcards, and maps. The spirit of this visionary investigation of Manhattan equals the energy of the city itself.show more

Review quote

"Seduces and entices through Koolhaas' witty travelogue and ultimately persuades the reader through the book in just one sitting."show more

About Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas is the internationally known architect, a founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.) in Rotterdam, and author of the critically acclaimed "S, M, L, XL."show more

Table of contents

Delirious New YorkIntroduction
Prehistory
Coney Island: The Technology of the Fantastic
The Double Life of Utopia: The Skyscraper
The Frontier in the Sky
The Skyscraper Theorists
The Lives of a Block: The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the Empire State Building
Definitive Instability: The Downtown Athletic Club
How Perfect Perfection Can Be: The Creation of Rockefeller Center
The Talents of Raymond Hood
All the Rockefeller Centers
Radio City Music Hall: The Fun Never Sets
Kremlin on Fifth Avenue
2 Postscripts
Europeans: Biuer! Dali and Le Corbusier Conquer New York
Postmortem
Appendix: A Fictional Conclusion
Notes
Acknowledgments
Creditsshow more